The facts, when they came out, prove that the hospital orderly had not been attempting to escape. He was an Army enlisted man, and he had been digging camotes just outside the hospital stockade, and almost directly underneath a Jap sentry tower. The camores were to be added to the sparse diet of rice and thin soup rationed to the hospital patients. As it was an extremely hot day, this hospital orderly-- a man named MeFee--called inside the stockade and asked a buddy to toss over a canteen of water. McFee's buddy complied. McFee was about to drink from the canteen when the Jap guard in the sentry tower suddenly yelled at him. Wondering at the commotion, and not understanding the words being shouted at him, McFee tilted the canteen and spilled some of the liquid to show the Japanese that it was nothing more than water. That was McFee's mistake, although we were never able to find out just why. The Jap guard shouted again and then flung up his rifle and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered at the junction of the neck and shoulder and came out through the hip. McFee yelled out, as he staggered, "My God--don't shoot me again." The sentry poured two more bullets into McFee's body, and then fired the remaining shots in his clip at McFee's buddy . inside the hospital compound, and who by this time was running for dear life for the safety of the barracks. This second man was not hit. - 78 - |